Congrats! 97 Mountaineer are the best - and the most unique. They only came with the explorer/mountaineer hybrid front end for 97, and had the powder-coated teardrops.
FYI, From the pic of the engine bay, it looks like yours is an early 1997 V8, (built before April, 1997)with the GT40 non-p heads and internal egr. When you go to order engine parts, tell the guys you have a 1996.